An Empty Lot Becomes a Riverpark Farm in NYC

“Milk crates are a ubiquitous element in every restaurant kitchen and it’s one of those things – they are always around, piles of them. So, to have another use for them, it’s perfect.”

By Sara Jacobson
Core 77
Oct 17, 2011

Excerpt:

No one knows when the economy, and construction, will kick back in. So, the key element of the Riverpark Farm is to be quickly adaptable for tearing down and rebuilding at anytime.

“When we were first talking, I envisioned traditional, big wooden raised beds. I didn’t even actually think about the need to for mobility,” Ortuzar said, talking about the process. “How do you move a big wooden planter when you need to…well you don’t. So that’s why, this.”

Through GrowNYC, a non-profit farming and educational organization, Ortuzar and Zurofsky quickly connected with Thomas Kosbau of Ore Design to address the design of the farm. Ore, an architecture and design group based in Brooklyn, had worked with GrowNYC on a community garden, and also had a penchant for re-purposing projects, having recently worked on phase one of a Brooklyn market of shipping containers, Dekalb Market.